


nothings changed; I love you the same

by pepper_407



Category: Gossip Girl (TV 2007)
Genre: Bisexuality, Multi, Season/Series 04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:02:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29281923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pepper_407/pseuds/pepper_407
Summary: Dan's in love with his best friends and really good at overthinking everything
Relationships: Dan Humphrey/Blair Waldorf, Nate Archibald/Dan Humphrey, Nate Archibald/Dan Humphrey/Blair Waldorf
Comments: 8
Kudos: 16





	nothings changed; I love you the same

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this to be set in like the late middle of season four but honestly just use your judgement lol. and the title is from a thousand matches by passenger

Just for a second Dan wonders if he's a little bit in love with Nate Archibald. It was nothing big, he just laughed at some dumb joke Dan made, but the way his face lit up for just those few moments had Dan starstruck. At first, it was just a glimpse of a thought, but he's Dan Humphrey and he doesn't let glimpses of thoughts go without over analysing them for all that they're worth

"Are you in there buddy?" Nate waves at his face like he had been trying to get his attention for a while

"Oh, yeah, sorry, was just remembering that I had to go get something from Blair's" Dan doesn't know why he says it, well he knows, he says it because his first instinct when having any kind of crisis is to talk to Blair, but the fact that he said it aloud was weird and he can see Nate giving him a look so he panics and says something even more idiotic, "I have to do something for Serena"

"Oh okay, I understand" and then because Nate is an amazing person he makes sure to add on, "call me later though" so that Dan knows he isn't holding going running to Serena against him

Goddamn, for a writer he is not good with knowing what the fuck to say. And then he calls a cab and heads to Blair's. And on the way there thinks about this feeling, he doesn't think it's quite like the way he felt about Serena once upon a time, and he doesn't even think it's that similar to a feeling he is finding hard to ignore around Blair. But it is a familiar feeling, some kind of itch under his skin, maybe he just feels differently about people as you do, or maybe it's something different, he wants to figure it out but the way of the heart has never, despite all his trying, been his strong suit.

He checks Gossip Girl to make sure Blair isn't out with Chuck, or he guesses, just out in general and doesn't find anything so he knocks and Dorota gives him a look that he is used to acknowledging and then proceeding to ignore. Blair is at her table, eating a croissant and reading a book he can't quite see the title of when he clears his throat and she just nods at him without looking up from her book so Dan awkwardly sits at her giant table that he always feels out of place at.

"Humphrey, this is a surprise" She deadpans, obviously expecting him, and honestly that brings him a stupid amount of glee

"Well, I was in the neighbourhood"

"Oh yeah? Now, what were you doing in the  _ neighbourhood _ ?"

"Shopping obviously"

"Obviously"

"Small talk over, what do you need Dan?"

"Oh it's Dan now, I see how it is"

She just gives him a look

"I kind of need to talk to someone about a little discovery I might have made"

"And you came to me?"

"Well you are renowned for being sensitive when it comes to complex feelings," Dan says sarcastically

"Well you did come to me," she says, apparently being able to see his, albeit pretty shitty, attempt, at shifting blame

"There is a small possibility that I have a crush on Nate"

"A crush? how old are you Humphrey, say feelings like an adult"

To say Dan wasn't expecting this response would be an understatement and he can tell Blair takes some pride in his reaction and his ability to not let her get the upper hand is the only reason why he is able to reply in the same century, "So do you have advice then?"

"Well, you came to me with a statement, no inclination to what you really want advice about. If you want reassurance that Nate is, as you would say, crushworthy, I will assure you that we all know a little something about being in love with Nate Archibald. Or if you wanted advice about making a move, I would suggest Serena, despite, or maybe because of our rather long romantic encounter I would be the first to say that she has a lot more experience seducing Nate than I do"

"You're taking this whole me being into a guy thing better than I expected"

"Well, Jenny made a few comments back in the day"

"I'm sorry?"

"Oh, I don't think she meant to out you or anything, she just made a few comments about the two of you having some stuff in common"

"I have so many questions"

"Ask away Humphrey" She smirks

"You knew my sister was into girls? She talked about me being into guys? She talked about us? You took note of it and then remembered it? What is going on?"

"Well she said something about how you loving Cedric was somewhat living up to a stereotype and also how the two of you were outsiders for more reasons than I knew"

"That's it? That would have been years ago now, and it wasn't, it wasn't anything"

"Plus you have always looked at Nate like he hung the stars, I'm honestly surprised it took you this long to realise, I kind of thought you were more self-aware than this"

"Well, I've never really had a guy friend before so I thought this was kind of just how it was, I knew I was into dudes, just, not _Nate_ "

"Oh Humphrey"

"So what do I do?"

"Well the question rises again, do you want to do anything about it?"

Dan looks at this girl no, this woman, in front of him. And yes he can acknowledge that he knows that he's at least a little in love with her but he also knows that he values their friendship, not too much to consider making some kind of move at some point, but enough that he's not friends with her because it's all he can get. He befriended her by utter accident and it has been a truly unexpected delight to know her. And in a way, Nate's friendship came in a similar way, albeit at a slower and more steady rate, but the similarities are not hard to see.

Dan is reminded of Vanessa and how he thought he could never fall in love with a friend and feels guilty in multiple ways when he eventually replies with a, "Honestly, I wouldn't be opposed to the idea"

"Well, you're lucky I don't have anything else going on today Humphrey, let's go get some coffee and maybe I'll help you with this problem of yours

He definitely didn't expect her to offer up her services, especially not without some weirdness but of course, this is Blair Waldorf and she lives to surpass expectations, so all Dan says is, "I have a pot brewed at my place"

"Of course you do, well you're lucky you have good beans"

"Luck has nothing to do with it, I'm just a coffee genius"

"Come on Humphrey let's head to your loft of a coffee genius"

"I see you have accepted my ways of living"

"In your dreams"

They show up and Nate's there, just standing outside the loft waiting, Dan tries to remember if Nate had made a plan to come back later when he was over, and it takes a solid minute for Dan to realise he's not just imagining it because Blair literally elbows him.

"Nate"

He reacts to his name in such an awkward way that Dan feels like he falls just a little bit more in love with him in that precise moment, especially when he replies with a simple yet a little mocking, "Dan"

Blair, obviously annoyed that she wasn't the centre of attention for even just a second adds, "Blair, she's here too"

Nate gives her this look that Dan doesn't immediately recognise, maybe he has never really looked at them together, or at least not for many years because Nate looks at her with this grin that shows that he's maybe exasperated with her but also it looks a little like he never wants to look away and Dan can't help but tuck that thought away, for later, he thinks.

Blair is the one to ask, which is a little ludicrous he'll admit, "So, what brings you to Brooklyn?"

"I was actually going to ask you the same thing?" Nate replies but his nod towards Dan implies that he doesn't quite mean Brooklyn

"Well we should all discuss the many wonders of Brooklyn inside, where I have some great coffee ready for us all to enjoy"

"Humphrey, you and your coffee"

The two of them sit at the kitchen bench while Dan gets the coffee ready and he lets himself think about the fact that they are both here, in his space, in such a relaxed and uneventful way and how he kind of wants this moment to never end. He also doesn't quite take in what they're talking about until Blair directs a comment at him, "Humphrey, tell your boyfriend here that ice cubes aren't meant to be chewed, they are meant to sit in the glass, making the liquid cooler or maybe, and only in very dire situations sucked on"

As soon as she says the word  _ boyfriend _ Dan goes beet red and takes in exactly zero of what else was spoken about but the two of them seemingly ignore him and go back to their conversation but in the corner of his eye he sees Blair  _ freaking  _ Waldorf give him a wink. The fact that this seems to be Blair's attempt to, he guesses wingman him, bothers him less than the fact that Nate had zero reaction, he just let it go, maybe he didn't notice because he's too involved in whatever they are lightly arguing about but Dan honestly doesn't know how that's possible, she, in a joking way (but still) called Nate his boyfriend and other than the humiliation of how he reacted and the fact that is something Blair just did, he has to acknowledge how genuinely and pretty embarrassingly  nice it sounded.

"Okay, coffee coming right up"

"You're such a catch Humphrey" 

The sarcasm is dripping off Blair's tone but it's still such a weird thing for her to say and without the dumb context that Dan has he's not surprised that Nate asks. "Are you flirting with Dan?"

Blair reacts differently than he assumed she would, instead of playing it off, she blushes a little and says, "Humphrey? Are you kidding?"

"Whoa there Waldorf, Dan isn't someone that would be crazy to flirt with, he's in your social circle, you seem to be friends, even though I have no idea how that happened and he's very attractive"

Dan cannot help his audible reaction to that last statement "I am?"

Finally, finally, Nate blushes but sticks to his guns and Dan can't help but see the similarities that Blair and Nate share, he wonders if it was because of how they were raised, in this environment where they couldn't, not even for a second, just relax, and that thought makes Dan want to just look after them

"Come on Dan, you know how you look"

Blair like the devil she is is the one to reply to that, "Maybe he doesn't Nate, maybe he thinks he's fugly"

"Who are you and what have you done with Blair because there is no way she would ever say the word _fugly_ "

"I was just giving you an excuse to compliment him, don't look into this"

As soon as she says that both Dan and Nate turned to look at her and realise that she's actually nervous, or maybe the word is anxious, or uncomfortable and Dan suddenly feels like utter shit for not realising that even though in a hypothetical world she was cool with him going after her ex-boyfriend, seeing it right in front of her would stir up emotions and that's probably why she has been so pushy, she's uncomfortable and doesn't want to show it.

And then Nate says, "Oh god, are you into Dan?"

He can't quite figure out what the fuck is going on because that's so obviously not what's going on right now but after Nate said that both of them start looking at each other in a way that only two people who have known each other for as long as they have could, and for the second time in one day Dan misses Vanessa

Blair is the one that breaks her staring contest of sorts with Nate and grabs her bag, "I should go, you two should-. I need to go meet Serena"

"I think Serena would find this a little bit hilarious"

"Well she would definitely love this part where we are all talking about her"

"Blair!"

"Fuck off, she would, I love her but she would"

"You love her?" Dan asks, picking up on something

"Alright fine, yes, we have all been in love with Serena at some point, what's the big deal"

"No wonder you were so chill about me being bi"

"Blair, we love and support you," Nate says while making eye contact with her and then turns to Dan and says it to him as well

And while this whole scene is surreal and makes him want to get out his computer and write it down, that simple and awkward and wonderful statement from Nate puts everything into perspective and he hears Blair tell Nate to shut up, but he knows that tone and as she leaves the loft he sees a hint of a smile on her face.

"So, I think I better head off too"

Dan grabs his arm, "Wait, what were you doing here in the first place?"

He grins and scratches the back of his head in that all too endearing way, "I just wanted to see you" And Dan looks at him because they were together literal hours ago and he sees Nate mentally acknowledge this and he adds, "Again"

"Well here I am"

"That you are"

"Well, uh"

"Well, yeah, okay, well it was good to see you, mission accomplished I guess, and it was good to see Blair too, unexpected but not in a bad way, but I should head off"

"I'll be seeing you, both of you"

"That you will"

**Author's Note:**

> This ended up being more open-ended than I expected but anything I tried to write for it didn't work so I'm leaving it there. maybeee one day in the future I'll add to this world but idk. ty for reading, comments are always appreciated <3


End file.
